Quiet the Noise

The tragic events of the loss of Elle’s family.

• Fiction
• Horror
• Mystery
• Short story
• Drama

								
Bang! A gunshot. I look up from the computer and see my reflection in my bedroom window. Bang! Another. I stand up and look at the door. Bang! I'm completely stopped in my tracks. Bang! I start toward the door unsure if I should leave. My sister screams. Bang! I bolt to my door and swing it open. Slam! A door shuts. I turn the corner and jet down the stairs. Right at the bottom of the stairs is my brother. Covered in blood. Dead. I fall to my knees on the stairs, stunned at what I see. I step over my only brother's dead body and walk into the living room. There I see my sister, dead. My uncle, dead. My mother grasping onto her life, I fall to the ground beside her and start bawling. . Bud-duh, Bud-duh. My mom's heart, beating, slower and slower with each last breath.

“Please don't leave me, please hold on” I beg and plead at her, soaking us both with my tears.

“Please…. Just.. don't” She struggled to get words out.

“What, what were you going to say?” My hand, holding hers and resting on her stomach as it lowers and doesn't rise again. My mom, dead. Lying on the floor of the only home I've ever known.

I scream, completely hysterical. The front door flies open, and my dad walks in.

“Dad… help, mom she needs help… she… dad help her please.” I plead all mumbled and messy. My dad drops his bag onto the floor and runs to me.

“Oh my god”

“Help dad please help her!”

“What did you do?!” he turned to me.

“What… no nothing.”

“What did you do Elle?!”

“Nothing Father!” I was sobbing and just completely shocked that he was putting this on me “I was working in my room and…and I heard gunshots…and… Lilly was screaming. I ran down here, and they were all dead.” I didn't even know if he would understand me because I was crying so much.

“Call the cops, now,” he said.

I stumbled to my feet and ran up the stairs to grab my phone jumping over my brother Jay's dead body. I grab my phone and dial 911. It rings and I try to control my breathing so they'll understand me. The lady picked up and started asking me questions. I told her my name and address, but I think that's all she was being able to understand. I was on the phone with her for a few minutes and I started to hear sirens.

“I hear them, the sirens, I think they're almost here.”

“Okay Elle I want you to give the phone to your dad, can you do that.” the Operator said

“Yeah, here you go” I handed the phone to my dad and went to look outside. Neighbors up and down the block had come outside to see what was happening. Two cop cars and two ambulances pulled in front of my house. I was now standing in the middle of my lawn just staring at them.

“Are you Elle?” One of the officers asked as he put his hand on my shoulder.

“Uh…y…ye…yes, yes I am”

“Okay we need to get you in the ambulance” he urged me to move.

“I'm no…not... I'm not hurt. It's my family. They are inside.”

“Miss you're covered in blood,” he said. I looked down and found my clothes soaked in my moms blood.

“It's… It's not mine. Please go... Go help them.” The deputy ran inside. I was still in complete shock

I kept looking at all the people gathering on the block and thinking about how they were just watching me sit here sobbing my eyes out. A few houses down I see my best friend Liv run out of her house. She saw me and sprinted as fast as she could. As soon as she got to me, I fell into her arms and onto the ground. She was shaking, I mean she didn't even know what was going on. I couldn't stop sobbing. I sat there for a few minutes and Liv's dad had made it over to us. They started rolling the first gurney out and I lost it. I jumped to my feet and tried to run to them but Mike, Liv’s dad, grabbed me and stopped me from doing so. At this point, Liv was sobbing too.

“No, that's Jay isn't it” Liv cried. You could see the strap of his leather jacket he always wore handing out from under the tarp. Liv had fallen to the ground at this point, we were so close my family was like hers, Mike was still holding me back but more of a comforting grasp now. They started rolling out another stretcher. Lilly. She was so little. The same deputy who had talked to me earlier came up to me, and Mike let go of me.

“Hey Elle, I think it's best if you and I go somewhere else We need…” He was interrupted by Liv screaming.

“Oh my god, oh my god.” She ran to the stretcher and I followed. “What happened Elle, what the hell happened.” I looked at her and tried to talk, but I couldn't stop crying. I ran inside and Liv was right behind me. Liv gasped as we walked into the living room “Oh my god”

“Dad…” I ran to him and wrapped my arms around him, he was watching as they put my mom and uncle on stretchers. I had my arms around him so tight, and he just stood there. They started rolling the last two stretchers out of the house, and he pushed me off of him.

“You were here,” he said very loudly “You were supposed to help them, to save them,” there was a pause I was so confused. “This is all your fault.” he ran out of the house.

The deputy came in

“Elle, I'm Officer Brass, We need to get you to a hospital and get you checked out.”

“What... Oh, on I’m fine.” I said, “I just need to go talk to my dad he needs me…” I started to walk toward the door, but he grabbed my arm.

“Miss Young you need to come with me, we need to make sure you are alright, your dad is going to come with us, we need to check on him too.”

“Okay, just take me to him please.” The officer helped me out the door and Liv followed the both of us.

“Here I need you to get in my car, do you need help getting in.”

“Umm… no I've got it, can you just get my dad please.”

“Of course, I'll be right back,” he said as he walked away. I was shaking, my shirt was soaked with tears and blood. I looked in the reflection of the rearview mirror to see my face was also covered in blood. I had been wiping tears, but my hands were soaked in blood too, and my eyes were so red and puffy. They were gone. They are dead. Not only that, but they are not coming back. I sat there and watched as my eyes started tearing up again, and then pouring after a moment. I hugged my knees sitting in the backseat of this car, It should have been me, not any of them. Officer Brass opened his door and got into the car I let go of my legs and sat up straight.

“Where is my dad?”

“He wanted to ride in the ambulance with your mom.” The Officer said

“Oh, uh... So he already left?”

“I'm afraid so, but we're going to go to the hospital right now, and we will find him.”

“Yeah umm. Yeah, okay.” I said as I hugged my knees again I looked out the window as Officer Brass started driving and turned on his sirens. The second I heard them my brain took me back. I heard the sirens and went to hand my dad the phone so he could talk to the 911 operator. The way he looked at me, was terrible. He looked at me like I was some animal, one he didn't even know, he looked so mad. Did he really blame me for this? Was it really my fault? Of course, it was. My dad was right I was there, I was supposed to help them, to save them, but I didn't. Maybe if I would've just left the room faster. I just stood there thinking, stunned, terrified. Perhaps if I had been braver I could have saved them. My dad was right, of course he was, this was my fault.

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